A judge told Joanna Dennehy she was "a cruel, calculating, selfish and manipulative serial killer" as he sentenced the 31-year-old at the Old Bailey.

Dennehy was ordered to serve the rest of her life in prison for murdering three men before attempting to kill two others.

Judge Mr Justice Spencer. Credit: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

She laughed and smirked as Mr Justice Spencer delivered his sentencing remarks.

Dennehy pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to the murders of Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, Kevin Lee, 48, and John Chapman, 56, in and around Peterborough over a 10-day period last March.

Detectives launched a nationwide hunt to find her after the bodies were discovered in remote ditches in Cambridgeshire but she went on to drive 140 miles to Hereford where she repeatedly stabbed two dog walkers.

Serial killer Joanna Dennehy, who murdered three men before randomly selecting and repeatedly stabbing two others last year, laughed and smiled as she arrived in the dock to be sentenced.

Joanna Dennehy admitted killing three men over a 10-day period.

The 31-year-old was wearing a pink Adidas vest top, which revealed visible scarring to her upper arms, and looked relaxed as she was led into London's Old Bailey.

She interrupted her own mitigation to talk to one of her barristers, repeatedly shaking her head in apparent displeasure.

Nigel Lickley QC, representing Dennehy, said she recognised her crimes were "exceptionally serious" and added that the serial killer had not intended to "embarrass or humiliate" her victims.

He said: "The three men who were killed were not strangers to her. They were killed by a limited number of stab wounds. In essence the crimes are aggravated by the number of offences and the attempted murders."